Service update from GM Peter Svidler, @polborta: “Health bulletin: was too sick to fly, will be watching #dohachess2016 from home. Feel much better now, might manage a BB later this week.”

Loads of chess players were wandering around in hotel lobbies in luxury hotels in Doha, celebrating Christmas among unsuspecting tourists: @brucel:“I’m in a hotel lobby surrounded by chess players bragging about games they’ve won. Very festive: chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”

@pscooksey:“Question – what are the players doing in the evening – are there sights to see in Doha or just a million elo in a nice hotel?

Sound like a lot of fun! Perhaps the tweeter should have gone out to the playing hall to watch the games: @forwardchess: “Rapid chess is epic struggle of the titans! Thrilling to watch.”

Indeed, rapid chess is thrilling to watch. It is even more fun to watch the games in the playing hall, but the pictures from the event showed an almost empty playing hall (except for the players of course) , an empty press room and only a handful of chess journalists covering the event.

(Picture of the press room by Anna Rudolf @Anna_Chess)

@mikamesh:“Why did the organizers pick a Stadium as venue? The place seems oddly deserted”.

An event like this, organized in a place like Doha, can only work if you can present the games on the net for free, with good commentators and a flawless connection.

@telegraphchess:“Miroshnichenko/Rudolph top commentators sad to see them struggling with awful game feed and asking audience the result of games!”

In the rapid tournament, there were some complaints about the connection.

@Chess_Anyone:“Such a poor streaming #Dohachess2016 This is not how a rapid WCC should look like.”

@theallenvonix: “How hard can it be, to provide a stable livestream in 2016? Final games and you have to reload every 10 seconds.”

@pscooksey:“I’m enjoying #dohachess2016 despite livestream being less reliable than the Benoni”.

Let’s go to the games. In an event like this, it is always nice to discover some new names: @pramodnvs:“Levan Pantsulia has been a revolution here.He has beaten both Hikaru and Magnus here.What a grt feat!” @GM_Mogranzini: “The real surprise of the tournament is Levan Pantsulaia”.

After day one (five rounds), the leader was…@chess.com: “Korobov Perfect On Day 1 At World Rapid Champs,” after the second day (10 rounds) @multiscrime: “Vassily Ivanchuk finishing the 2nd day of rapid championship with 8/10 and being a sole leader with performance of 2953.” @TarjeiJS: “Vasily Ivanchuk, leading #dohachess2016 after 10 out of 15 rounds. I am almost hoping this legend will win it all.”

@Vilispawar: “When you are an Indian, an ardent Vishy fan but you want Chucky to win against him”.

Oh, and where are the other top players: @unudurti:“Titans slumming it out on the lower boards: Naka on B16, Karjakin on B23, Leko on B26, Jobava on B31”.

Winner after 15 rounds: @JakeDarmanin: “Ivanchuk has just won the World Rapid Championship!! Kudos to the veteran legend, very happy for him!”

I think everybody in the chess world is happy for Ivanchuk. An overwhelming number of (prominent) tweeters congratulated the new rapid chess world champ.

From the bloggers vault: Ivanchuk with Spasski (left) in Bilbao.

@Kasparov63: “Congrats to the Great Vassily on winning the World Rapid! He surprised me many times at the board; now he’s teaching a whole new generation”.

@nigelshortchess: “Delighted for Vassily Ivanchuk, one of the tiny handful of chess players @Kasparov63 unhesitatingly refers to as a “genius”.

What about the women? @rohangoda:Why aren’t the commentators looking at the Women’s world championship?! There are many interesting games!

@followchessapp: “Meanwhile in the Women’s section of #dohachess2016 , Anna Muzychuk continues to dominate with only 4 more rounds to go (total 12)” .

And in the end, Muzychuk won: @MarkTWIC: “In a tweet @Eljanov celebrates the Ukrainian double victory in the men’s (Ivanchuk) and women’s (Anna Muzychuk) in spite of no state support”

Blitz world championship

Next up : 21 rounds of blitz chess! Every chess player loves blitz, Morozevich for example: @gmasterg4:“It’s the comeback of the Legends, Morozevich is back!”

But neither Moro nor defending champion Grishuk could keep the pace: @cazhansen: “Carlsen & Karjakin neck and neck after day 1 of World Blitz @#dohachess2016. Defending Champ Grischuk looks out of contention”.

You can see that the tourney is a real tough event, when you look at the oppponents of Vishy Anand @Unudurti:“Anand’s tough fight in the Russian Superfinal: win vs Matlakov & Jakovenko, lost Morozevich & Dubov, draw Karjakin, Nepo next”.

On the second day, Carlsen seemed to have some trouble: @TarjeiJS: “Jobava had a completely winning position against Carlsen: “My grandmother would have won that position”.

@polborta:“With one hand tied behind her back, no doubt – and the other somehow full of rhubarb”.

@olimpiuurcan:“In conclusion, I’ll say this: I’d rather watch Jobava lose like a man a thousand times than Leko drawing like a wimp once.”

The first rest day of the match was on Sunday. If you don’t like the NFL or Formula 1, what is there left to do, for example in India, Jaideep?

@unudurti: “No #CarlsenKarjakin today. I wonder how we’ll manage without the adrenalin and excitement?” Daniel Gormally was happy with the day off-for the players: @elgransenor:“What a relief there’s a rest day in the world chess championship today- the players certainly need it after all the excitement.”

@nigelshortchess spent the day thinking about the schedule: “Bold” idea for the World Ch:5 games a week, with play on Sat. & Sun. Oh, & cheaper tickets and software that works too.”

@MarkTWIC: “I did some quick calculations. 3 games then a rest day would allow 14 games instead of 12 in the same time period.”

And of course, you could also watch some old men playing chess on Sunday in St. Louis @GMJtis: “That Anand guy, just keeps refusing to listen to people telling him how over the hill he is. @bibliophilopoly: “Skipped watching the NFL today to watch the ENTIRE #ChampionsShowdown broadcast.”

Wow, two big chess events at the same time in the USA, that’s good news for the chess community. What’s your take, Darko Polimac: @ChessPolimac: “USA should never host any important @Fide_chess as they are totally useless with no infrastructure at all ! #usa is a joke to run events”.

In other news: on Monday, a bunch of challengers were announced for the upcoming Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2017 in Wijk aan Zee. One spot is still open.

Will we see one of them in a world championship match any time soon? Who knows. A possible future challenger played in this Russian TV show: @telegraphchess: “3rd old Mikhail Osipov turns down Karpov’s draw on Russian TV then solves some difficult puzzles – lovely !”

@ChessVibes: “Even the great Anatoly Yevgenyevich seemed to have watery eyes when the kid asked for his mama.”

Game 3

Let’s go to game three in New York. @silviodanailov wants to see some action:”Chess world is waiting for action today,warm up should be finish.Otherwise there is a danger for the most boring WCC match last 20 years.”

@elgransenor: Really excited about game three of the Carlsen-Karjakin match- have had to cancel my watching paint drying class to watch it.

And what do you expect, Mark? @MarkTWIC: “It would not surprise me at all if Carlsen played 1.e4 or 1.c4 for the rest of the match and his 1.d4 followed by Trompowsky was a feint. “

Pretty soon, the live coverage lost at least one viewer: @AMartinChess: “Ah, it’s a Berlin. Are the cricket highlights on TV this evening?” @GiddinsSteve: “No, but competitive paint-drying is on ITV4.”

@PattyLlanza: “First we play the Trump, then we take the Berlin. Carlsen y Karjakin están homenajeando a Cohen.”

@GMIanRogers:“Carlsen takes on the Berlin in Manhattan at the World Ch. match. Spectators thinking “They sentenced me to 20 years of boredom”. #RIPCohen”

@Anttvidius: “Watching #worldchess2016 live isn’t much exciting as it sounds like. And it not even sounds exciting.”

@AMartinChess: “Karyakin’s tactics: Play very dull games and pick Magnus off if he gets frustrated. An excellent idea, but the spectators will suffer”

Oh boy, all these boring games, it is time to change the format, according to @SusanPolgar: “If Chess wants mega sponsors, change the WC format. For every draw, they have one 5 min round of MMA. Big pay-per-view”, followed by “How many of you are with me? Every draw = one 5 minute round of MMA style battle .You will not see the Berln much anymore :)”

Let’s ask grandmaster, trainer and commentator Daniel King about these plans: @DanielKingChess: “Really enjoying game 3. Those who want to change the WCh format – speed up games, and such – mere populist piffle!”

Back to the game: @GMLars: “Actually I find this game pretty interesting – not so easy for Black in practice. Karjakin must make some tough decisions.”

@Jonathan_Rowson:Thing about being worse against Magnus: He can’t magically create a win, but he will maximise your chance of screwing up.

@GM_Huschenbeth:“Carlsen is smelling blood”. @carsi_izmit: “I really wonder the temperature of Carlsens brain”. @fabianocaruana:” I am surprised to see Karjakin suffering so much after Carlsen’s innocuous opening choice; still very drawish though”.

Another top GM on Twitter has other thoughts: Teymur Rajabov @rajachess:“Yeah now the torture will continue and I must tell you that Carlsen will win this position for sure”.

And Carlsen came very close, but…..what happened? Rb7 happened.

@elgransenor: “Rb7??? is pure fatigue kicking in for Carlsen, he will be kicking himself if game is drawn now. ” @gm_melik:“This is insane , Rb7?” @reachvsara: “A double blunder in the 7th hour of play, and we have another folk tale ready for non-Chess muggles!”

@thechessdrum: “Game 3 has been a seesaw of emotions… or maybe rollercoaster is more accurate!” @swe_chess: “A true roller coaster! It was like watching the tie break Borg vs. McEnroe in Wimbledon 1980 over and over again” @dusanchess: “Kudos to Sergey Karyakin for outstanding nerves and defense! Nevertheless matches all my expectations before the match :)”

@TarjeiJS: Anyone who says draws are boring after this, will be blocked.

@LawrenceTrentIM: “You got to give it to him, Sergey Karyakin is one of the most tenacious defenders in chess history”.

Justin Horton shared the dilemma of many chess lovers in the GMT time zone: @ejhchess: “I seem to have stopped watching the chess an hour too late to get a decent night’s sleep and an hour or two too early for the real drama”.

@bobcats4peace: “During this #worldchess2016 game one could have flown from Moscow to Oslo, have lunch and… fly back. (1632km)”

Teymur, are you still up? @rajachess: “I do not regret a single minute spent today without sleep, because I love this game”

And one last tweet for today: @politistefan:“I thought I could never be more of a chess fan. Now, I feel like I’ve discovered a new-found love for the game of chess”.

One day left before the first game of the match between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin! Twitter is slowly heating up for the #Chess #Event #Of #The #Year.

@Tristadamus: “Magnus by name magnificent by nature @MagnusCarlsen lives for this sort of challenge.Karjackin sounds like a handle from grand theft auto…”

Obviously, on Wednesday there was some other news that dominated every Twitter timeline. Let’s check some reactions from the chess world and ask GM Jan Gustafsson what happened:

@GMJanGustafsson: “WTF! Must still be dreaming. No way this happened last night. Harrison Barnes scores 31?”

Bravo, NBA fan Jan gets his priorities straight. Other reactions:

@nigelshortchess:“So, the US failed the IQ test. Good morning everyone!” An unemotional reaction came from Mark Crowther:@MarkTWIC: “Just transferred all the dollars out of my Paypal account.” @Kasparov63 decided to tweet about the weather: “Winter Is Here.”

Talking about Kasparov, I spotted this rather weird tweet by journalist @StefanLoeffler: “Can @Kasparov63 be blamed for Trump’s victory? In politics (and chess politics) the former world champion is always on the loosing side”.

Stefan and Garry are not best buddies, I guess.

In an earlier blog post, I asked your predictions for the match. Jon Ludvig Hammer @gmjlh tweeted: “In the year of Trump and Brexit, 80/20 in betting markets suddenly not looking as comfortable for Magnus fans.” Jonathan Bryant @BerlinEndgame: “After what 2016 has given me so far I have no doubts whatsoever that Karjakin – the fan of the fascist dictatorship – will win”.

@anishgiri:“Media have approached me asking for #CarlsenKarjakin chances. I didn’t respond, but after a good thought I now give Karjakin approx. 36.8%.

@Patrick_JMT:“If Leo can win an Oscar, the Cubs the World Series and Trump the presidency, I’m putting $ on @SergeyKaryakin over @MagnusCarlsen”. @Lord_Goz: “Leicester Won the Premier league, Portugal the Euros. Trump the elections. @MagnusCarlsen Watch out!”

@thechessdrum: “@Cubs win World Series … Trump wins U.S. Presidency … should @MagnusCarlsen be concerned in #worldchesschampionship? #StrangerThings”

Perhaps, we should ask The Simpsons.

On Thursday, a rather uneventful opening press conference was held in New York. I can tell by experience, that the players do not like these events and want to return to their bubble as soon as possible. @TarjeiJS: “Looks like Carlsen and Karjakin meeting the press will get competition from a certain Trump meeting Obama. Easy choice.”

One tweet by @OlimpiuUrcan is all you need to know about the press conference: “That press conference was Carlsen giving a simul to seven different individuals on topics such as style, substance and self-confidence.”

If you cannot wait for the match to begin, there is another formidable chess event in the US to follow: @GMHikaru: “On a more positive note, today is the start of the #ChampionsShowdown @CCSCSL and buona fortuna a tutti.”

FYI: Topalov, Nakamura, Caruana and Anand play in this event in St. Louis from November 10-14. They play classical, rapid and blitz chess.

Another tournament to watch is the European Club Cup in Novi Sad: @elgranasenor: “Is it just me or is the European club chess tournament just scarily strong? So many good players these days it’s actually depressing.”

Good players, like @anishgiri: “Big day. First win for papa.”

Last tweet of the day by @forwardchess: #CarlsenKarjakin Interesting Fact: @MagnusCarlsen turns 26 when the world c’ship match ends! His B’day falls on 30th Nov (Tie-break day)

Did you know… that the hashtag is so recognized that it was added to the Oxford Dictionary and the Scrabble Dictionary? ‘Hootsuite’ describes the hashtag as follows: The hashtag is likely the most popular means of categorizing content on social media. It makes your own content discoverable and allows you to find relevant content from other people and businesses. The hashtag also allows you to connect with and engage other social media users based on a common theme or interest.

Therefore, it is important to find a good hashtag for the World Championship in New York. Picking the wrong hashtag can result to awkward situations. Let’s have a look at the hashtag #therapist, for example:

-Intention: Therapist
-Interpreted: The Rapist
-Result: Entering into a completely different conversation online.

On Monday I tweeted : @ChessClassic:#CarlsenKarjakin seems to be the best hashtag for the match. Any other suggestions? #WCCCNYC2016AGONFIDE perhaps?

It did not take long before I got answers and suggestions: @TarjeiJS: #WorldChess2016 seems to be used by some prominent Agon people, but I refuse to use it!

@Pookita: “Yep. The only issue with #CarlsenKarjakin is remembering how to spell carjacking correctly. Otherwise, it’s the best”. David Llada agrees and tweets: @Lladini:“My vote goes to #CarlsenKarjakin. We need to make top player’s names, if not famous, at least recognizable.”

Sometimes you need to convince the organisers to use the right hashtag. @TarjeiJS: “I remember we managed to convince the Indians to use #AnandCarlsen back in 2013, instead of the laughable #FWCM2013”. @adatar: “Which idiot came up with that FWCM thing instead of players name???”

@asimpereira wrote: “Then thank goodness @lachesisq is not one of the players is not one of the players”. In case you are wondering who the person behind that handle is: Yan Nepomniachtchi, the Russian grandmaster who used to work in Team Carlsen, but decided to support Karjakin this year.

@pookita replied: “We’re worried about your young “double Anand.” He’d bury us in letters”. She speaks of Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the 11-year old who is on his way to become the youngest GM ever. The hashtag #NepomniachtchiPraggnanandhaa comes to mind.

I think using the players names makes sense, therefore I will vote for and use #CarlsenKarjakin during the world championship. #WorldChess2016 refers to the official website, and from an organizers point of view this hashtag is understandable. However, as @lladini puts it: “No outsider would remember or feel curious about stuff like #FWCM2013 or #WorldChess2016”.

Talking about outsiders: I stumbled over a tweet by @samuaelalfaro: “Who is going to win the National Chess Championships in New York City? Carlsen or Karjakin.”

In other news on Tuesday: @kajasnare:“Just met @SergeyKaryakin at breakfast in NYC. Reports he is feeling good 3 days to go #worldchess2016”.

The question is: @ChessClubLive: “You are going to have breakfast with @MagnusCarlsen also?” @kajasnare: “He is invited. Got a feeling I will be stood up”.

@tarjeiJS:“Reuters reporting that Agon are suing chess sites to stop them from covering #CarlsenKarjakin”. @SusanPolgar: “Chess moves can’t be copyrighted and should never be copyrighted! This simply defies logic. Chess moves are for all to enjoy and learn from!”

And we have the first predictions coming in on Twitter: @amartinchess: “My prediction for Carlsen-Karyakin: An 6.5-5.5 unthrilling Carlsen win Plenty of hard fought , long games. Maybe a Berlin or two.”

What is your prediction? Send a tweet to @ChessClassic.

One last tweet for today, from the licensed NYC guide @tourguidestan who tweeted on Tuesday: “Fans aren’t exactly beating down the doors to get into the big chess match.”

Having a two-year break from world championship blogging was actually quite nice, but let’s go on with the blog! This time, I am a neutral observer…..

In the next weeks the World Championship Match between Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Sergey Karjakin (Russia) in New York will be the main topic in this blog. After the match, I plan to give you a weekly overview of the most interesting chess related tweets.

It is still quiet in Chess World Championship Twitterland, a few days before the match starts, but I found a number of tweets. Let’s kick off with a funny tweet by my regular contributor from India, @reachvsara: ” The intrigues of World Chess Championships started! Browsing on to http://sergeykaryakin.com fwds to http://magnuscarlsen.com automatically!”

The trick still works, even a few days before the match. Sergey obviously does not seem to have a good social media expert in his team.

A good guide for people who obviously like to stay at home and watch online, like Zuckerberg and Gates: @nigelshortchess: “The @ChessBase “journalist” who wrote “Zuckerberg and Gates to Attend World Championship” claims that this did not imply they would attend.”

@Saderjock:“The beautiful flexibility of language. Like the Bible – it can mean anything.”

The journalist replied: @AlberSilver64: “It is very sad when the most important thing in one’s life is arguing about Bill Gates going to the WCh or not.”

@nigelshortchess: “No, it is about extremely shoddy standards of journalism at a very large chess news website.”

The players

Let’s have a look what the players post on Twitter. As a chess fan, you should add the accounts @Magnus Carlsen, with 130.000 followers and @SergeyKarjakin, who has 18.100 followers (6 November 2016).

Sergey obviously prepares in Florida, according to his tweet from 31 October: @SergeyKarjakin:“With my friend Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the match Miami-San Antonio! What a fight! Proud to touch the ball during the game. “

Sergey and Shak touching balls in Miami.

They boys do not tweet very often though, and I can tell from experience that the players will probably not tweet very often during the match. Attention: Follow the account @GaliyaChess, which is the account of Sergey’s wife Galiya Karyakina. You will not only be able to see the result of her shopping sprees in New York, but maybe some other stuff as well during the match.

You might think that 130.000 followers (Carlsen) is quite a lot, but when you check the site http://twittercounter.com/ you will see that the athlete with the most followers is Christiano Ronaldo @cristiano with almost 48 million followers. Reality check: Chess on Twitter is in the same league with sports like Darts, Table Tennis or Snooker.

Since there is not that much going on on Twitter about the match yet, let’s close this comeback column with a tweet by @chessnotes:

“So, 2016 World Chess Championship (two years since last one) starts in five days. Where’s the media blitz?

Well, I don’t know. What’s your view, @TarjeiJS: “I really hope Agon will succeed, but this is their last chance. If they can’t do it in NY, they never will.”

BTW: do we have an official match hashtag yet? Send in suggestions to my acccount @ChessClassic. And if you see any interesting tweets or do have an interesting chess related account yourself, send a tweet to @ChessClassic. Thanks!